Hospitality & Tourism

How Sodexo Universities builds meaningful connections with students

From the start, one of the biggest challenges Sodexo Universities faced was making its corporate messaging resonate with 18- to 24-year-olds.Working with Hootsuite, the team at Sodexo Universities received training in industry tools and best practices to build a deeper understanding of its audiences and shape a social media content strategy that focused on delivering highly relevant and personalized content.The key to Sodexo’s success with this strategy is its 100 on-site marketing managers on campuses across the US. Using the shared content library within Hootsuite’s dashboard, regional marketing managers have access to a centralized calendar each month for content ideas. Individual managers can then customize content to suit their audience and campus, while ensuring content remains standardized and on-brand across all Sodexo Universities accounts.

From maintaining university grounds and serving meals to checking students into their residence halls, Sodexo’s frontline employees play a central role in the student journey. These employees are the ones having face-to-face interactions with students and local communities, making their voices a critical part of the Sodexo Universities story.To build trust and engagement with students and local communities, Sodexo has kept a consistent focus on highlighting these employees on social media. Each year, the company runs a campaign called Thx :) for Making My Day!, asking students to submit a photo and thank Sodexo staff for what they do. They also celebrate National Employee Appreciation Day each year on the first Friday in March. To this day, it is still one of the highest performing campaigns, receiving more than 10,000 student submissions and 1 million engagements in 2019.

As universities around the globe face a rapidly shifting future, one thing is certain: The task of providing a rich and meaningful campus experience will look very different from what came before.

With student life becoming more digital, Sodexo Universities is working with Hootsuite to advance its digital and social maturity, using regular Social Maturity Assessments to identify new opportunities, benchmark progress, and refine its strategy and content.Through creative and innovative social campaigns—including using virtual tours to welcome students to campus and inviting them to online health and wellness sessions with experts—Sodexo Universities continues to set a new standard in making 21st-century student life a success.